L&T introduces one-day menstrual leave per month | India News

MUMBAI: In a primary of types for the engineering and development business, Larsen & Toubro chairman S N Subrahmanyan launched a one-day menstrual leave facility each month for the corporate’s ladies workers.
The announcement got here throughout Women’s Day celebrations on the Powai workplace in Mumbai the place the chairman addressed 350 ladies staff.
The organisation’s workforce of 60,000 contains about 5,000 ladies staff, representing 9% of complete workers. The coverage excludes L&T’s non-construction and non-engineering companies comparable to monetary and expertise companies. That’s as a result of these companies have work-from-home and versatile work preparations, whereas the primary L&T operations have an office-based working coverage.
The menstrual leave provision is a pioneering step for a progressive office coverage within the business that L&T operates in.Thursday’s announcement follows Subrahmanyan’s earlier contentious assertion suggesting a 90-hour work week for workers whereas additionally expressing disappointment in regards to the incapability to implement engaged on Sundays.
Specific particulars relating to the implementation of the 12-day annual menstrual leave coverage stay undetermined, together with its graduation date, and whether or not it constitutes further paid leave past current entitlements and the permissible timing inside the menstrual cycle.
While India lacks nationwide laws on menstrual leave, a number of organisations comparable to AU Small Finance Bank, Orient Electric (a part of CK Birla Group), Swiggy and Zomato and states like Odisha, Bihar and Kerala have independently adopted such a coverage to help ladies’s well being and well-being. A proposed invoice addressing ladies’s rights to menstrual leave and free menstrual merchandise awaits enactment.
According to KS Legal and Associates’ managing accomplice Sonam Chandwani, regardless of optimistic intentions behind menstrual leave insurance policies, sensible points exist. “While it recognises biological differences and supports workplace inclusivity, it could unintentionally reinforce gender biases. Employers might hesitate to hire or promote women in roles requiring continuous availability, fearing additional leave requirements like maternity leaves. This could set back workplace equality,” she mentioned.